Attorney General William Barr has faced accusations of doing Donald Trump ‘s bidding since his handling of the Mueller report. Now, his defense of the president amid the impeachment probe is fueling more concerns and causing legal experts to suggest possible conflicts of interest, Newsweek reports.
Attorney Nick Akerman, who worked the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of former President Richard Nixon, spoke to Newsweek about his views on Barr’s performance.
“This is a really strange situation with Barr, who has so many conflicts and is up to his eyeballs in all of the corruption surrounding Trump,” he said.
Former federal prosecutor Michael J. Stern appears to be on the same page as Akerman. Also speaking to Newsweek , Stern suggested that Barr is loyal to the White House — a “perversion” of his duty at the Department of Justice.
“There is an inherent conflict in Barr’s designated role as the chief law enforcement officer of this country and his efforts to protect the man who gave him his job. It is unfortunate that Bill Barr never misses an opportunity to place his thumb on the scales of justice in favor of Donald Trump. That’s not how it is supposed to be.”
. @TheJusticeDept A message for Attorney General Barr: resign. pic.twitter.com/hwsFY6xqLg
— Rep. Hank Johnson (@RepHankJohnson) December 19, 2019
Per CNN , former Attorney General Eric Holder, who served in Barack Obama’s administration, recently attacked Barr as “unfit” for this current position. Holder made the accusation in an op-ed in which he took aim at Barr’s recent public statements, which he said were “so plainly ideological, so nakedly partisan and so deeply inappropriate” for a person in his position to make.
In particular, Holder noted Barr’s comment on the FBI’s motive for investigating Trump’s 2016 campaign, which conflicted with the conclusion on the DOJ Inspector General report. Holder called him a “partisan actor” that is not acting in an impartial manner.
As The Inquisitr previously reported, Barr’s November speech before the conservative Federalist Society led to backlash. During the speech, the attorney general accused Democrats of undermining the United States’ rule of law and waging war against the Trump administration. He also attacked Trump’s opponents, who he suggested were taking aim at the executive powers of the president.
Following the speech, New Jersey Democrat Bill Pascrell called for Barr’s impeachment as well as his disbarment. In addition, Former Southern District of New York federal prosecutor Mimi Rocah blasted Barr’s comments as “outrageously inappropriate” and called for the attorney general to begin approaching his position in a non-partisan manner.